Would you like to increase your profits? Are you losing customers to competitors?Are you struggling to stay relevant in a constantly changing industry? Do you want to spend more time with family?

For our August meeting, we are fortunate to have a panel of 3 top collision industry experts who will be in town for a training seminar on Saturday(see flyer Below). Don't have time to travel to NACE or SEMA? Let the knowledge come to you! This is a great opportunity to learn what others are doing to improve their business. As with all HABA meetings, everyone is invited and there is no charge for the meeting. Investing a couple of hours could give you a lifetime of dividends!

Our next meeting will be held at UTI located at 720 Lockhaven Dr. - Houston, TX 77073 at the Weid Center. Food and Beverages will be provided. It will be on Tuesday, March 10th at 7 pm.

One of the HABA goals for 2015, is to improve the pool of employees available to our industry. There is no better place to help with that than Universal Technical Institute. Please come and join us........

Tonight's meeting will be held at Tommie Vaughn Ford located at 1200 N. Shepherd in the upstairs meeting room. The sales department will close at 7pm and parking will be on the street. Food and Beverages will be provided. Please come and join us........

The September HABA meeting is being held tomorrow at Texas Land & Cattle on I-45 South-Gulf Freeway just inside Beltway 8 on the South bound side; Next door to Home Depot. We are asking everyone cover his or her own meal expense and be there as close to 11:30 as you can. We will have everybody back to the shop's as soon as possible. This meeting format has been very successful and we hope to see everyone there.

Please RSVP if you haven't already. We need an accurate attendance count for the reservation. As always, we welcome everybody, member and non-member shops alike. Please forward this to other managers and owners you know so they can attend.

The Houston Auto Body Association's meeting will be held next Tuesday August, 5th from 5pm to 6:30 at the Hyatt Regency Houston located at 1200 Louisiana St., Houston, TX 77002. Our meeting will be before the evening Collision Industry Trends Update business building event being brought to you by CARSTAR.

CARSTAR, a leader in the collision repair industry, has brought together a great group of sponsors to hold meetings in the Houston area. These meeting will update attendees on trends in the industry. There is a lot going on across the country. Don't miss this opportunity to see you are not the only person struggling to do what right by your customer's, your employees and even yourself. Don't do it alone because you are not alone. There will be morning meeting on the North side and the evening meeting is in the Downtown area.

The first meeting of 2014 will be held at Mossy Nissan in the conference room, above the new car showroom. We have a lot to discuss. We have open positions within the association that need to be filled. These include President, Board members and a secretary position. It's time to get involved and make a difference. Trust us, it's not hard. We all have shops to run, families at home and other things that are more fun but without a good industry its hard to pay for the other stuff. It only takes a few hours per month to make a big difference. All of us have made a commitment to HABA but we need your help.

HABA will turn 5 years old in 2014 and we need to make this the best year yet. If you haven't paid your 2014 membership fee, please do so. You can bring a check for $300 to the meeting or visit the website by clicking on the link and pay with a credit card.

For those that haven't heard, there will be no meeting tonight and we will not have one in January. So, our next meeting will be in February of 2014. We will discussing our plans for the new year and how HABA will move forward through 2014. Please forward this to other shop managers and owners so everyone can stay in touch. We thank you for you time and we hope see everybody in 2014.

The Survey Results Are In. Come join us for the last meeting of 2013. Let's Make Sure We're All on The Same Track.

We 've had a great year with a lot going on. Come see what you've been missing. We have completed the 2013 Labor Rate Survey and the results are in.

The last labor rate survey conducted by HABA was in 2011. It revealed what we already knew to be true; the prevailing labor rate as stated by the insurance carriers was indeed higher than they reported. It was shortly thereafter that, all insurance carriers increased the rates they would pay for collision repair and materials in the Houston area.

Please CLICK HERE to add your shop to the list of those that receive our notices. This will help you stay informed about what we're doing to help you serve your customer. Also make sure you forward this to all other shop owners and managers that you know. Help us reach other and increase the industry awareness.

1st Annual Charity Golf Tournament

Your Houston Auto Body Association has teamed up with The Local I-CAR committee to hold our first charity golf tournament. This event will benefit Stuart Career Center in Baytown, Texas & The Collision Repair Education Foundation. We are excited about helping these folks and look forward to seeing our members at the event.

We have some great sponsors registered already but we have room for more. We're also looking for more players. This will be a great time and way to help the future of our industry. We hope to see you there.